Sunday, January 13, 2008

Constitution? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Constitution!

Rather than ignore him or set up a meeting with concerned students, Valdosta State University, in Georgia, informed Barnes, then a sophomore, that he had been “administratively withdrawn” effective May 7, 2007. In a letter apparently slipped under his dorm room door.

That shows a great deal of maturity as well as concern for student safety. A note under the door? Who runs this place; twelve-year-olds?

The letter also said that in order to return as a student, a non-university psychiatrist would have to certify that Barnes was not a threat to himself or anyone else, and that he would receive “on-going therapy.”

Translation: "I don't like you, so you must be nuts."

Corn-Revere wrote to the University System of Georgia and was told only that the institution couldn’t discuss the case because of federal privacy law.

How convenient.

As additional evidence of the threat posed by Barnes, the document referred to a link he posted to his Facebook profile whose accompanying graphic read: “Shoot it. Upload it. Get famous. Project Spotlight is searching for the next big thing. Are you it?”

Project Spotlight is, as any native English speaker of normal intelligence could figure out in 30 seconds, a video contest. It says a great deal that the president of a university couldn't figure that out. It says a great deal about the entire university staff that they were passing around hardcopy of a student's Facebook page. Don't they have computers at universities?